Government Shut Down

[DanaC]

The only things there that the uber Right (as opposed to sensible conservatives) give a toss about are the veteran benefits. I daresay they'd count it a minor victory if social security and medicare goes unpaid.

[Jesus]

Originally Posted by DanaC

The only things there that the uber Right (as opposed to sensible conservatives) give a toss about are the veteran benefits. I daresay they'd count it a minor victory if social security and medicare goes unpaid.

It's the only thing they posture about. I doubt they genuinely care though. As long as they can wrap themselves in the flag. The uber right, for a long, long time, were actually blocking a bill a couple of years ago, to provide healthcare to the first responders of 9/11.

There has been no greater horse that has been flogged by the right, than that. Yet they weren't interested in helping the people that put their lives on the line.

[sexobon]

The $100K is the default amount for a subsidized term life insurance policy (SGLI) that military personnel have the option of buying. First responders would get what they bargained for in their civilian contracts. Victims would get what they purchased privately. Life insurance policies without war exclusions have been available for as long as I can remember and I've known military personnel who went the commercial route because they didn't trust the government to come through on the policy it offered.

The problem arises when the government subsidizes higher death benefits to some segments of the population than others such as the families of civilian victims receiving substantially more than the families of military service members. Politics then makes for second class citizens.

OTOH, I don't have any problem with the government subsidizing the death benefits and health care costs of first responders and civilian casualties, in such paramilitary situations, and bringing their incident connected death and injury benefits up to what military personnel get.

[glatt]

European markets open in 8 hours. What's going to happen to US ratings then? There was a lot of pressure to resolve this clusterfuck before markets opened this week because this was the last weekend before the default. It's not looking like they are going to resolve this in the next 8 hours. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am disappointed. I thought they might do their jobs this weekend.

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's not looking like they are going to resolve this in the next 8 hours. I shouldn't be surprised, but I am disappointed. I thought they might do their jobs this weekend.

Wackos are why money can be made. Markets will fall big time. If you saw wacko extremists as I have, then you were collecting cash. That may be an ideal buying opportunity.

[Griff]

Video of Pete Sessions taking a bite out of democracy.

[infinite monkey]

Some local chick wrote in a local paper last week about how she was reporting on something and Boehner was so nice to her (this i believe, he can be personable in real life) and she took the opportunity to tell him (he is our district's congressman) how hard it is to raise her beh-bey on a reporter's salary therefore she didn't want obamacare and he LISTENED to her and she felt democracy in action. Stupid twit.

[Lamplighter]

You don't need to concerned if you will not be affected by
default of the U.S. Treasury on this coming Thursday.

If you might be affected, you should hope/pray that Eric Cantor
retains his health, and is not delayed in traffic or otherwise fails
to attend all coming sessions of the House of Representative.

He is the only member allowed by a current House Rule to bring
a Bill" related to the debt ceiling" to the Floor for a vote.

The Hill
Mike Lillis
10/14/13

<snip>
Under long-standing House rules, any member of the chamber
can bring a measure to the floor. But Republicans altered the rule
governing legislation to fund the government so that only
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) holds the power to make such a motion.
<snip>

[henry quirk]

Keep it shut down (shut down MORE of it, and let it stay down).

And: YAY FOR DEFAULT!

[Lamplighter]

TNMPM

[Lamplighter]

The Taliban says women are not allowed to learn go to school
The Pope says women are not allowed to be priests
The John Boehner says women are not allowed to negotiate the government shutdown.

The Telegraph
Alex Spillius
15 Oct 2013

Women US senators lead compromise efforts on shutdown

Women have led reconciliation shutdown efforts in Congress,
showing their male colleagues a thing or two about compromise

As the men who lead the United States Congress have continued to test the world’s patience,
it is female members of the Senate who have led efforts at compromise, leaving some in Washington
to ask what would have happened if women had been in charge all along.

The initiative was seized by Susan Collins, a Maine senator,
a well-known moderate, who found willing partners on the Democrat side
of the partisan divide. Together they prodded their male colleagues into action.
<snip>
Maria Cantwell, a Democratic Senator, was adamant that if the
dispute over government spending and borrowing had been left to women,
then bitter divisions would have been breached and the government,
which has been shutdown partially since Oct 1, would have reopened.

Senator Claire McCaskill, a moderate Democrat from Missouri, commented:
“We are trying to find that place where we can get something done.
We’re not as interested in fighting as we are in moving the substance of the issue.”

Not only do female Democrats and Republicans manage to talk to each other,
they share dinners too. On Monday, the New Hampshire delegation of Kelly Ayotte, a Republican,
and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, chaired informal talks over pizza in the latter’s Senate office.

Such informal gatherings hark back to a time when the Senate was
regarded as epitome of civilised debate and political accommodation.

[tw]

When Gingrich, et al were playing this game, they were not driven by a political agenda that said, "We want America to fail." This is the first one that concerns me. Because it is driven by people with near zero intelligence levels and a philosophy that says, "We will ignore facts to just know a default will not be harmful."

Gingriich and his "Contract with America" supporters understood how things really work. Therefore backed down in humiliation in order to not make America fail. View henry quirk's post to see how dangerous today's wacko extremists have become.

A government default is to me an ideal buying opportunity. It should be profitable. However, it will mean all American debts (current and future) will automatically increase. Nobody with intelligence would advocate that. And that is the problem. These wackos have no idea that they want American to become a second class nation. Intelligence in American politics has dropped to Joseph McCarthy and Nixon plumbers levels.

A default will happen if moderates in the Republican party do not stand up and attack the wackos. Even Boehmer no longer displays any backbone.

[Lamplighter]

This is the NY Times News today...Oct 15, 2013




Probably not many of you remember the Friday night when the US went to bed
expecting a nuclear war the next day - the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But it's not since then that I have gone to bed with such feelings.
Who knows what will happen today ... maybe not nuclear war,
but one way or the other, it will certainly be a high-magnitude event.

What bothers me in my own mind is that I have actually come to believe
the GOP is no longer controlled or made up of men-of-good-will.
It's no longer "politics" or a "game".

When the entire House of Representatives is jerked about by the $
of two men, the Koch brothers...
When elected officials are manipulated into fear of not being re-elected...
When the good of the country is no longer the issue...

I have lost all sense of humor with the Republicans.

[tw]

After a round of golf, Boehner said to Obama that he thought they could work out a grand deal. So the two men sat down multiple times in secret to work out the government budget. Then Cantor discovered the talks through VP Biden. And put threats to Boehner's back. Either back out of the deal or be overthrown in a coup. The threats worked.

Now new threats from these tea party extremists have further saddled Boehner with another dilemma. From the Economist, "how to satisfy their members Quixotic longing to kill Obamacare without shutting down the government or causing a default."

Well this forces a question that can no longer be avoided. Is Boehner that incompetent as Speaker of the House as to not properly exercise the power he has. Or has the party so radically changed that no Speaker could rally, muster, and corral his members? The Washington Post is asking that question today in "Boehner sees his control of House Republicans slip away" on 15 October 2013.

But as evening fell over the Capitol, it was increasingly clear who had control over the House GOP: no one. ...

And despite what most see as a debacle for Republicans, a core group of conservatives insisted Tuesday that they are winning their battle to force concessions from Democrats on fiscal issues.

Even the numbers (polls) say something completely different. Why would they stick to what is obviously a lie?

It goes right back to a question of whether Boehner is an incompetent speaker. Or did the Supreme Court make corruption of Congress now easy by creating unrestricted financing of campaign funding by even calling corporations people?

“We didn’t get anything. This has been a total waste of time,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), one of the most consistent critics of his party’s most conservative members.

“I think they think they won somehow,” he said. “Whatever echo chamber they live in, they’re only hearing good things.”

Added Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), “The only reason the Democrats don’t look terrible is because we look worse.”

Maybe. Or maybe Boehner has surrendered power to Eric Cantor and the extremist in exchange for no coup.

[glatt]

It's hard to follow all this. I don't want to invest the time.

Didn't the Republicans change the rules so Cantor is the only one who can bring a bill? They know that the majority of the House has gone on record that they would support the Senate bill to fund the government and debt, and so to keep moderate Republicans from submitting that bill, they changed the rules so that only Cantor can do it. They want him to be in charge.

I honestly don't know what power Boehner has left. What is his power?